1. Kevin Mikolajewski | Innovative and Strategic Creative Leader
1640 Burning Bush Lane, Hoffman Estates, Illinois 60192 | Email: lakekev@att.net | Cell: 847.648.0125
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinmikolajewski | Portfolio: www.kevinmikolajewski.com
SUMMARY
A contemporary and meticulous senior design manager with extensive experience in brand management,
marketing, mobile apps, logo creation, web representation and media relations. Established capabilities in
advertising campaigns, product launches, strategic communications, negotiations, print collateral, compliance
and problem solving/troubleshooting. Utilizes business relations and market knowledge to identify
opportunities and generate growth. A forward-thinking producer with a proven aptitude for exceeding goals
to contribute to a company’s long-term and sustained success.
EXPERIENCE
ESSENDANT Deerfield, Illinois
Director, Creative and Communications 2014-2015
Managed and conceptually led creative services team. Drove strategic communications to support promotional demand and
custom marketing interests of company’s reseller audience. Mentored diverse team of design, copywriting, production and
photography talent in all forms of conventional and digital media. Oversaw large based catalogs as well as custom collateral,
event support, brand identity, web page, email and mobile app designs. Provided resellers with promotional sales vehicles in
addition to marketing tools to guide and foster brands’ competitive positioning in respective markets.
• Guided new brand launch through various internal communications (collateral and video) and external ad campaigns.
• Directed development of company’s core identity standards and created addendum guidelines for presentations,
corporate stationery and internal communications.
• Launched newly designed furniture catalog to incorporate value for our reseller audience.
• Led re-branding efforts for over 20 resellers.
• Assessed and reinvented value propositions, positioning taglines, logo design, capabilities brochures, presentational
tools and development of corporate guidelines.
• Partnered with marketing, IT and content peers to restructure and redesign company’s intranet portal.
QUILL.COM Lincolnshire, Illinois
Creative Services Manager 2007-2013
Led and managed team of 25 web, email and print designers in strategic development. Produced company communications to
drive awareness, traffic and sales conversion through ecommerce site. Communicated via media, including print collateral,
targeted email blasts, monthly website updates and promotional deployments. Managed two photographers in growing and
enhancing digital in-house photo studio to support diverse ranges of staged product, live-action model photography (on and
offsite), as well as video footage for web-supported product demos.
• Competed and won against several external agencies to redesign company logo, including redefined value proposition and
new tagline for company.
• Redesigned packaging for brand products as ongoing initiatives, impacting over 2,000 company brand product SKU’S
over next few years.
• Collaborated with marketing team and NBC to ideate and produce popular Dunder Mifflin paper sku, generating
success to foster ongoing development of additional product skus.
• Assessed creative roles and initiated competitive salary survey, leading to tier changes, position description rewrites,
creation of two additional positions and a more efficient teaming structure hierarchy.
ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY Northbrook, Illinois
Creative Account Manager 2005-2007
2. Kevin Mikolajewski, Page 2
Fostered strategic communication relationships with company business and agency partners. Forecasted and managed
department workloads, ensuring conceptual integrity, executional brand quality and continuity in media. Assessed marketing
requests and composed creative briefs to establish clarity of communications objective.
Graphic Design Manager 1997-2005
Creatively directed, managed and mentored fifteen diverse designers in the development of company-wide communication
solutions and consumer-based collateral to be strategically branded and competitively effective in the marketplace. Services within
Creative Arts area encompassed design/implementation from conventional print and presentations to supporting company-wide
web-based (intranet and internet) initiatives. Project scope included substantial product-line collateral and agent informational
support, including educational documentation, sales promotions and event-driven conference material.
• Served as the primary creative/production consultant for the balance of the department employees, including ten
production artists, five traffic coordinators and eight print production specialists.
• Active Brand Steward providing direction for the company’s changing brand positioning, value proposition, architecture
and corporate identity standards to internal and external business partners.
• Established a three-year company-wide stock photography contract with GettyOne, resulting in a savings of $200M over
two years.
• As Chairperson of the Intranet Standards Sub-Committee, led division-wide cleanup of web content, establishing web-
based visual standards, guidelines and accountabilities for intranet publishers.
• Enhanced company-wide work options program by assessing Creative Arts/Purchasing roles and defining custom role-
specific criteria for flexible work schedules, i.e. telecommuting, part-time, flex hours, etc.
• Led three independent salary reviews to justify fair market compensation, assessed employee skill sets and rewrote job
descriptions for five key positions within the Creative Arts area.
ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE
ARTHUR ANDERSEN & CO., S.C., Chicago, Illinois, Design Supervisor, 1990-1996. Provided communication solutions ranging
from conventional print and presentations to various forms of interactive media. Collaborated with creative leadership peers
to drive Communication Design Center’s ongoing marketing strategy, thereby promoting new business opportunities. Actively
participated on Arthur Andersen Global Design Council, fostering company value proposition and evolving/ensuring consistent
execution of corporate identity design standards.
UNITED WAY, CRUSADE OF MERCEY, Chicago Illinois, Assistant Manager, Designer, 1985-1989. Created and collaborated with
designers and writer to provide graphic solutions for United Way’s marketing/fundraising programs: informational and
promotional collateral, special event graphics, conceptualization and production of campaign videos. “Hands-on” working
knowledge of all technical aspects of print publishing (web and sheetfed 4/color printing, press and prepress quality proofing
and determination of production specifications). Provided quality control of outside vendors and recommendations of cost
effective expenditures, as related to media type.
EDUCATION
ILLINOIS STATE UNIVERSITY, Normal, Illinois, B.A., Visual Communications
AFFILIATIONS
American Center for Design, AIGA, The Artist Guild, Insurance Marketing Communications Association (IMCA)
AWARDS
Staples TeamCare Award, Dunder Mifflin Copy Paper Product, PIA Printers Self Promotion Award,
Multi-Media New Vision Award, 13 Best of Show Awards (IMCA), Simpson Merit Award
COMPUTER SKILLS
QuarkXpress, Adobe CS (InDesign, PhotoShop, Illustrator), Macromind Director, Microsoft Office Suite, BB Edit, Dreamweaver,
Virtual Ticket, Outlook, Acrobat, WordPress
